AP Unveils Ambitious Plan Of Smokeless State

AP government had planned to declare the State smokeless by withdrawing kerosene for the purpose of cooking. Govt begins exercise to replace the kerosene stoves with LPG.

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government had unveiled the ambitious plan to make the State smokeless by June this year. The government is now planning to withdraw kerosene supply through the fair price shops and replace all the kerosene stoves with the LPG connections. The State government had already made arrangements with the petroleum companies to provide over 24 lakh LPG connections to the people under the Deepam scheme. The government would pay the deposit of Rs 1600 per connection, while the remaining amount has to be paid by the customers, which included Rs 800 for cylinder, Rs 1000 for stove, Rs 50 for Gas card and Rs 100 for the regulator and cable.

The government had instructed the LPG dealers across the State to make arrangements for the supply of cylinders to the customers in remote areas. The LPG distributors have no transportation network in the rural areas, both plain and hill areas.

Minister for Civil Supplies Prathipati Pulla Rao and Commissioner B Rajasekhar have already directed the officials in the district, including the civil supplies department to make arrangements for replacing the kerosene stoves with the LPG stoves. Besides providing the LPG connections to over 24 lakh families in the State during the next two weeks, the government would supervise the use of the LPG in place of kerosene and firewood for cooking purposes. The Civil Supplies Department would take up intensive campaign in the State to create awareness among the families, particularly the women, to shift to the smokeless cooking using the LPG.

The government had decided to withdraw blue kerosene from the fair price shops in the State from June 1. However, the white kerosene which is now used for the commercial purposes would be made available for the people in the open market. To make it more convenient for the customers in rural areas, the government had requested petroleum companies to make 5kg cylinders available.

Meanwhile, Civil Supplies director, G Ravi Babu, had issued orders to all the fair price shops in the state to accept the cash transactions by the customers and not to insist on cashless transactions. Ravi Babu had directed the officials and the dealers of the fair price shops to follow the orders.